WHEN ALL IS NOT WHAT IS SEEMS IN FAMILY LAW

Okay, so you’ve been through a rough divorce, and your kids are growing up with mom. You might be a little overweight and not really the Mr. GQ type, but you’ve got a college degree and a good paying job and – suddenly, there she is. The woman of your dreams. Right there in front of you, where you can almost touch her, on Match.com.

She’s tall and slender and blond, and most importantly, she’s beautiful. Seems like a mismatch, but she invites you to coffee, then dinner. She moans in your ear that she hasn’t been satisfied by a man like you in an awfully long time. She strokes your arm and tells you she adores your large, strong hands and wonders if this portends to other things. She kisses you and tells you how “yummy” you taste.

On the second date she suggests the two of you join another of her beautiful friends. Tequila shots are exchanged, and you no longer can see right from wrong. The women suggest you follow them to their house and the Jacuzzi. Too good to be true? Probably.

But you get in your car anyway, and you follow them. And suddenly, a flashing red light appears in your rearview mirror. And all is for naught. That’s because you’ve been had. And it’s all over child custody. Because months later, your ex wife files a motion in your divorce case telling the court you have a drinking problem, and you are a threat to your children’s safety.

This sordid tale is happening to divorced men right here in California, right now. According to the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Butler, a former police officer, arranged for men to be arrested for drunk driving at the behest of their ex-wives and their divorce lawyers. What Butler would do was pay two beautiful decoys $25 per hour to work in pairs. While one would drink heavily with you, the target, the other would drive.

Butler would then videotape the encounters from a nearby table. And when you stumbled into your car to follow your dream girl to her hot tub, Butler would tip off the police. And the rest was left up to the judge.

So beware. When that woman of your dreams appears out of nowhere in your life and makes you an offer that seems too good to be true – it probably is.